


Your Own Version in Return

by J (j_writes)



Category: due South
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-31
Updated: 2011-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-22 01:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_writes/pseuds/J
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray Vecchio returned to Chicago on a Tuesday, and found that he had nothing to come back to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Own Version in Return

**Author's Note:**

> written for Catwalksalone. sequel to [A Version of the World](http://archiveofourown.org/works/232146). bookstore AU.

Ray Vecchio returned to Chicago on a Tuesday, and found that he had nothing to come back to.

If he really admitted it to himself, he'd had visions of stomping into his shop in his snowy boots, then shedding his millions of layers and having Fraser fling himself at him like some kind of heroine from an old movie. Instead, he found himself standing outside in the snow, watching through the window as Fraser read out of a book to a carpet full of enthralled children, while the new Ray—the other Ray, the _wrong_ Ray—sat on the back of his chair with a mug in his hand and leaned over his shoulder to look at the pictures.

There was something about the easy way that Fraser leaned back against him, the way he would reach back and take the mug to have a sip from it every so often, that twisted something inside of Ray. Fraser had never been much of a physical guy, except with the kids. He tensed up when people touched him, when they got too close into his space, and Ray had been the only one he hadn't done that with. Now there was this new guy, and Ray had come back to a place he didn't belong anymore.

He walked down the street and got a hotel room. He could see the storefront from his window, and sat there for hours, watching people walking in and then walking out again, clutching bags and mugs, usually with huge smiles on their faces.

He spent three days there, because he couldn't think of anything else to do. Going home would mean seeing Frannie, which would mean Fraser finding out he was back. He could leave again, and start a new life somewhere else, but he'd done that once, and once was more than enough. Now that the mob was off his back, he just wanted to come _home_.

Except home, the home he knew, didn't exist anymore.

It was on the third day that the knock on his door came, and the new Ray was standing there, looking ready to punch Ray in the face.

"You're a dipshit," was apparently how people greeted each other where he came from. He pushed past Ray into the room and started scooping up his clothes from the bed and the floor and stuffing them into his suitcase. Ray stared, and was about to start throwing punches when the new Ray continued. "He knows you're in town, you know. How do you think you got here, anyway? You think the mob just magically let you off the hook? He practically got himself killed for you, and you don't even have the decency to come say hi?" New Ray tossed Ray's suitcase on the bed with enough force to shake the frame. "You don't deserve to come back. But he's miserable, and I can't deal with seeing him like that, so." He shrugged and turned, shoving Ray up against the wall. "You hurt him again, and I'll make sure the mob _kills_ you this time," he told him, right up against Ray's face, and then he turned and left.

The walk from the hotel to the store felt like it took seven years. Ray stood outside for a long time, until the new Ray looked up from behind the counter and waved him in impatiently. The bell above the door still sounded the same, and the shop still smelled like it had on the day Ray left…coffee and baking and the dusty warm smell of old books.

Fraser was in the kids' section, a little girl on his lap, holding a stuffed polar bear and apparently telling her some kind of story. Ray watched him, watched the way the girl's eyes lit up and her tiny hands reached out to clutch the bear to her chest, and then Fraser was looking up, his eyes catching on Ray's suitcase, his coat, before landing on his face.

"Hi, Benny," Ray said, and the little girl, sensing storytime was over, scrambled off of Fraser's lap to go chase Dief's tail.

"Ray," he said slowly, as if not quite sure if he was dreaming. He made a motion to get up, but didn't entirely make it, stopping halfway and asking instead. "Ray?"

Ray knelt down beside him and put his hands on Fraser's shoulders, keeping him there. He couldn't think of a thing to say, so he just stayed there, grinning like an idiot until Fraser's face broke into a matching smile. His hands were warm when they cupped the back of Ray's head and pulled him in, and their kiss was long, slow, deep…everything it hadn't had a chance to be the first time.

When they pulled apart, Frannie was already launching herself onto the carpet to tackle Ray in a hug, and the new Ray was leaning against the counter across the store, looking a little stricken. It wasn't until Fraser got up and crossed the room, taking the new Ray's hands and dragging him over that he seemed to relax a little, and even then, it took Fraser looping an arm around his waist and pulled him against his side to get him to start looking a little less like he wanted to make a break for the door.

"Ray," Fraser said, "this is Ray," and his delighted laugh was enough to make Ray think that maybe things might work out after all.


End file.
